Epigenetic mechanisms regulate genome activation in diverse events, including normal development and cancerous transformation. Centromeres are epigenetically designated chromosomal regions that maintain genomic stability by directing chromosome segregation during cell division. The histone H3 variant CENP-A resides specifically at centromeres, is fundamental to centromere function and is thought to act as the epigenetic mark defining centromere loci. Mechanisms directing assembly of CENP-A nucleosomes have recently emerged, but how CENP-A is maintained after assembly is unknown. Here, we show that a small GTPase switch functions to maintain newly assembled CENP-A nucleosomes. Using functional proteomics, we found that MgcRacGAP (a Rho family GTPase activating protein) interacts with the CENP-A licensing factor HsKNL2. High-resolution live-cell imaging assays, designed in this study, demonstrated that MgcRacGAP, the Rho family guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) Ect2, and the small GTPases Cdc42 and Rac, are required for stability of newly incorporated CENP-A at centromeres. Thus, a small GTPase switch ensures epigenetic centromere maintenance after loading of new CENP-A.

Summary Successive cell divisions during embryonic cleavage create increasingly smaller cells, so intracellular structures must adapt accordingly. Mitotic spindle size correlates with cell size, but the mechanisms for this scaling remain unclear. Using live cell imaging, we analyzed spindle scaling during embryo cleavage in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus. We reveal a common scaling mechanism, where the growth rate of spindle microtubules scales with cell volume, which explains spindle shortening. Spindle assembly timing is however constant throughout successive divisions. Analyses in silico suggest that controlling the microtubule growth rate is sufficient to scale spindle length and maintain a constant assembly timing. We tested our in silico predictions to demonstrate that modulating cell volume or microtubule growth rate in vivo induces a proportional spindle size change. Our results suggest that scalability of the microtubule growth rate when cell size varies adapts spindle length to cell volume.

The presence of a single centromere on each chromosome that signals formation of a mitotic kinetochore is central to accurate chromosome segregation. The histone H3 variant centromere protein-A (CENP-A) is critical for centromere identity and function; CENP-A chromatin acts as an epigenetic mark to direct both centromere and kinetochore assembly. Interpreting the centromere epigenetic mark ensures propagation of a single centromere per chromosome to maintain ploidy. Thus, understanding the nature of CENP-A chromatin is crucial for all cell divisions. However, there are ongoing debates over the fundamental composition of centromeric chromatin. Here we show that natively assembled human CENP-A nucleosomes are octameric throughout the cell cycle. Using total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF)-coupled photobleaching-assisted copy-number counting of single nucleosomes obtained from cultured cells, we find that the majority of CENP-A nucleosomes contain CENP-A dimers. In addition, we detect the presence of H2B and H4 in these nucleosomes. Surprisingly, CENP-A associated with the chaperone HJURP can exist as either monomer or dimer, indicating possible assembly intermediates. Thus, our findings indicate that octameric CENP-A nucleosomes mark the centromeric region to ensure proper epigenetic inheritance and kinetochore assembly.